Two eyewitnesses, who knew Hunter from his Southeast Washington neighborhood, testified during the trial that rescue workers stopped treating Hunter at the scene when they discovered Hunter's male genitalia and used crass language to describe the discovery. The suit claims, in part, that Hunter's human rights were violated by the workers who failed to continue treatment.

Although Anderson acknowledged to the jury that rescue workers' comments were "crude and inappropriate," he defended their "skewed" sense of humor. "It wasn't designed to hurt Mr. Hunter. It was street talk for a surprise finding," Anderson said.

"It's not the most evil thing that could happen in the world," Anderson added. " . . . It's not like the person who made these comments was trying to taunt Mr. Hunter."

Silber agreed with Anderson that what Hunter faced at the accident scene was not the worst thing that happened to him that day.

"As bad as things were on the street with the fire department, when Mr. Hunter arrives at the hospital where he is surrounded by people who can help him, it gets worse," Silber said."They don't help him."

Margie Hunter's lawsuit also charges that D.C. General Hospital emergency room doctor Joseph Andre Bastien failed to diagnose Hunter's injuries and follow nationally accepted standards of care. Silber criticized Bastien, saying he misread X-rays that are now missing, decided against inserting a chest tube to drain blood that pooled near his heart and did not give Hunter four units of blood that were available. But Anderson argued that Hunter bled to death, the result of a tear in his aorta, and "that nothing could have saved him." Anderson also argued that Silber had not proved that Hunter ran a successful business or that his mother deserved to be paid damages for her loss.

Although witnesses testified that Hunter was the busiesthairdresser in his salon, Hunter never paid taxes and did not have any bank accounts. An economist who interviewed employees and customers at Hunter's salon testified that Hunter would have made $119,000 a year.

"He was a good time kind of guy," Anderson said. "He ate at Houston's, took trips to New York and wore expensive clothes and expensive jewelry. . . . We could imply he was making some money because he was going to work, but we don't know how much."

"To hear him [Anderson] say that people get used to being called names just brings all the pain back," said Margie Hunter, who broke down outside the courthouse. "It does hurt. The pain just doesn't go away. He was a human being. To them this sort of thing happens every day, especially in the black community. But it's not true. I know he heard them when they said thosethings. I know it."

Cutline: Margie Hunter, mother of Tyrone Michael Hunter, wipes away a tear outside D.C. Superior Court. "It does hurt. The pain just doesn't go away. He was a human being,"she said of her son.